Junkculture would like to wish all of our readers a happy new year! We'll be back in 2011 to continue bringing you our eclectic mix of visual culture and daily inspiration. Most importantly, we couldn't have done it without you – a big thank you for all your support!

If you could take a peek inside the creative mind of artist Rose Skinner you might see something that resembles a nightmare a child might have after eating too much candy. Rose collects parts of various plastic toys to create these bizarre looking creatures. Most of her creations are constructed from everyday consumer items, plastic toys and dolls.

Cara Barer's photographs are primarily a documentation of a physical evolution. She changes common objects into sculptures in a state of flux. Through her work Cara hopes to raise questions about these changes, the ephemeral and fragile nature in which we now obtain knowledge, and the future of books.

Suppose you shoot a whole movie in a single frame? What would happen? Photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto took long-exposure photographs of cinema screens for the entire duration of a movie, resulting in a blank white screen. 'Different movies give different brightnesses,' he said. 'If it's an optimistic story, I usually end up with a bright screen; if it's a sad story, it's a dark screen. Occult movie? Very dark.'

The View-Master has a long history, dating back to the late 1930's in Portland, Oregon, USA. It was initially conceived by William Gruber and Harold Graves. The pair formed a partnership and the View-Master was born in 1938. Initially it was intended that the View-Master be an educational tool, primarily aimed at adults, but as time developed the appeal of the View-Master soon spread to other areas, one of the more notable being children's entertainment.

Created by Naruse Inokuma Architects, these house shaped sticky notes are made from the recycled wood of homes and buildings that have been demolished. "Once used as the material of a home, the wood was recycled into stationery, maintaining it's original shape but in completely different form."

For the past fifteen years, Elizabeth Saveri has worked professionally as an artist in Los Angeles. Her work usually consists of small representational paintings, painted on wood scrap or found objects. Elizabeth created these beautiful hand painted beachscapes on the little plastic ties that litter so many beaches and oceans.
Find out more about Elizabeth's work here.

It's that time of the year when I step back from the keyboard to pause and wish you a warm and happy Holiday Season. There is no time more fitting to say -Thank You- I hope the holidays bring you lots of reasons to smile! See you on Monday!

The 'Bread Palette' project was developed by Japanese designer Ryohei Yoshiyuki to encourage people to bring more art into their lives by experimenting with food. Each slice of bread contains a thumbhole, transforming regular toast into an artist’s tool for mixing colors and flavors.

Artist/designer Back Wheeler created an amazing series of found object sculptures that are fully functional pepper grinders. Made from found domestic objects the series is a play on the term domestic goddess.

Lee Grant's “Oriental dinner” is an ongoing series of photographs documenting some of the unique décor, interiors, patrons and restaurateurs of these suburban diners, many of which are disappearing through re-development ventures. Integral to the story of suburban Australia, they remain beacons of cultural and culinary comfort.

Artist Jim Darling created a series of aerial panoramas using frames resembling airplane windows. Shape, composition and emotion play a large role in Jim's work: “I attempt to take complex ideas and scenarios and boil them down to a more subtle subject matter,” he comments. “I then juxtapose this simplicity with intricate details. I try not to spell out the entire story, but rather set a tone and deliver elements for a scene. My hope and goal is that the viewer can feel that tone and build the story with the elements that I've constructed.”

Christoph Niemann's "Let It Dough" is an artist's attempt to create the universe out of cookie dough. Christophcreated this amazing series of illustrations for the NY Times, and by the look of things I'd say he's one smart cookie!

A great idea with an incredible result. Photographer Tim Lisko left his shutter open while on a high-speed bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka. High train speeds and lengthened exposures create an image so blurred as to produce strong patterns, lines, colors, depths—"something," the photographer notes, that "turned out to be a sense of balance, of simplicity, of stillness."

Steve McPherson is an artist and lecturer whose practice includes installation, sculpture, objects, book works, collections, assemblage and collage. For over 15 years Steve has been collecting objects from beaches of the North Kent Coast of the UK. Wave worn, sun bleached and scarred with unknown histories, these finds are collected and collated by type or colour.

Conceptualized in Croatia by Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić, The Museum of Broken Relationships grew from a traveling exhibition revolving around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins. Unlike ‘destructive’ self-help instructions for recovery from failed loves, the Museum offers a chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation: by contributing to the Museum's collection.

Using found wood, acrylic, and house paints, artist Aaron Moran cre­ates amazing geo­met­ric assemblages and sculp­tures. When asked about his work, Aaron said: "Structure is also of interest, the way in which objects or forms relate to each other on a physical level. I attempt to reclaim the lost materials by positioning them in a way that produces an aesthetically pleasing manner. There really is no such thing as 'waste' if you're willing to be creative."

A different take on decorative art, these abstract expressionist pillows are hand painted and sewn by Linda and John Meyers (aka Wary Meyers). This first series is based on works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline.

Part performance art and part installation Rachel Perry Welty's series 'Lost in My Life' is an ironic look at how we consume and collect. Rachel immerses herself in environments built entirely from familiar, leftover consumer materials: bread tags, price stickers, aluminum foil, twist ties, cardboard boxes, and styrofoam. Rachel is in every image, though she never reveals her face, emphasizing the dichotomy between personal identity and the anonymity of consumer habits.

Julie Cockburn's mixed media work involves the manipulation of found objects and images. Julie loves to poke fun at stylised old photographs, maps and family portraits, but always with a good dose of whimsy and charm.